First, we see that the champi has at least 4 stages, and that they wield a mace, both attributes of the militia (line).
Second, the barracks UI layout simply doesn’t have enough room. If militia line is still there, and champi takes the eagle’s location, the only remaining room is the 3rd row in the 4th column, because champi needs an elite upgrade button. But then we notice both temple guard and Ibirepema have an elite upgrade, which has no room to place. Thus the only possible scenario is champi replacing militia.
Now, I’m thinking whether a civ without militia line would do fine, and it seems so. Early stage you have arguably stronger rush than MAA opening, due to champi’s speed and pierce armor. Mid-game you have slingers to counter all infantry. The only tricky part is super lategame, where militia is the best low gold cost utility. I hope champi doesn’t cost as much gold as eagles at least.
Interesting catch @HestiaAoE .
Really curious if this is indeed the case and how this will affect them. Them getting slingers is for sure the intended consequencial tweak to be able to deal with stuff like eagles.
Interesting will be Mapuche who could end with only Champi and Spearmen as Infantry options, a very vulnerable cavalry unit from the Castle and completely depending on the performance of the Bolas Rider as main unit from the Archery Range. I’m curtious how devs want to solve this without making the civ either OP on some settings or unplayable on others.
What is the point of regionalizing everything? It feels like they worry if a civ doesnt have 14 standard deviations from the og civs its not gonna be liked.
I won’t be surprised if in the future the Eagle line will replace the Militia line for Aztecs, Maya and potential new Mesoamerican civs (Zapotecs, Tlaxcaltecs, Chontales, K’iches)
I’m generally curious how the champi will be.
I think it’s unlikely they will be a trash unit when I look at the design descriptions. But I guees they won’t have more than 50 % gold cost, more like 30-40 % or so.
In general I like the design approach way more than the eagles, there is a clear main unit counter in the knight line. So most civs actually have at least 2 counter choices, possibly even light cav in the uper late game.
I believe that will be too hard of a nerf on the Mayans due to them lacking slingers and being able to only create 2-handed swordsman in response to huskarls/ghulams. Also Malian champions will become all the more of an issue. The new unit overview describes the Champi warrior as a unit which is useful against archers, so I doubt it will have particularly favorable matchups against infantry, considering all the new civs will receive the slinger.
there is: both of these civs already have dedicated anti-infantry units, both locked behind a castle. giving them a new anti-infantry specialist makes these units rather pointless, while also messing with balancing.
CA have elephant archers as a regional replacement
